Means for pumping liquid



May 13, .1930.

" P. H. GRANGER 1,758,153

MEANS FOR PUMPING LIQUID Filed 001:. 51, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 v INVENTOR' P00/ /9. 'rd/l vi A TTORNEYS May 13, 1930. Y P. H. GRANGER t MEANS FOR PUMPING LIQUID 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 r" m 3 5 a 4 0/0 W FL I I l: ZZZ 35555555725551 1. w w .5 a r w I m r W- VVUVVJVMUVV UMVVUVJfihhhuvvfihvu\. q M w 7 6 m 2 2 2 z a w 2 u a 3 5 3 2b 'Fig.3isa section'on line3-3inFig. 1. port 12. Chamber 3 is also provided with or oil sand from which pumping is to be efmitting operating fluid, such as compressed vertical hquid delivery pipe or oil line 2 ex- Patented M... 13,1930 1 1,758,153.

- umran STATES PATENT-OFFICE PAUL H; GRANGER, OF LOS ANGELES, (EALIFOBNIA mums m rmnve mom I Application filed October 31, 1928. Serial No. 316,180..

This invention relates to improvements in cylinder 3 and communicates with said pumpmeans for pumping liquid and is particularing cylinder .through a valve cont-rolledport 1y adapted and intended for pumping oil in as hereinafter described, said pipe 5being conoil wells; In the pumping of oil from deep nected at its upper end to any suitable means,

5 oil wells, such as are being operated in Calisuch as a compressor indicated at 6 in fornia for example, certain diificulties have Fig. 6 for supplyingcompressed air or gas been encountered in the use of the ordinary thereto. Suitable valve means are provided reciprocating pumps and my invention en for controlling admission of compressed air ables oil to be pumped in such wells and obfrom the pi 5 to cylinder 3 and exhaust of 10 viates the ditficulties referred to by employair or gas 31m said'cylinder. Said valve ing compressed air as a pumping medium in means may comprise a valve sleeve 8 mountthe manner hereinafter described. ed to slide in the cylinder Sand provided, if

The accompanying drawings illustrate an necessary, with suitable packing means or embodiment of my invention and referring other means to insure a gas tight joint be 15" thereto: v tween the valve and the wall of the cylinder 55 s Fig. 1 is a vertical section, partly in eleva- 3, said valve slide being provided with a port tion, of the lower portion of a well provided 10 adapted to communicate in difierent posiwith my improved pumping means. tions of the valve sleeve with the port 11 for .Fig. 2 is a section on line 22 in Fig. 1. the compressed-air pipe 5 with an air exhaust Fig. 4 is a section on line -44 in Fig. 1'. an inwardly opening check valve 13 at its Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical section of a bottom, for admission of oil or liquid to be portion of the construction shown in Fig. 1. pumped.-

F' 6isa vertical section of the well, show- The valve sleeve 8 may be operated by a 25 ing e relation of the parts shown in Figs. valve rod' or stem 15 extending through a 1 and '5 to the general well construction. packing box or gland-16 in thetop of the cyl Referring to the drawings, awellcasin'g is inder 3 and provided at its upper end with a indicatedat 1, saidcasing extending from piston 17 working ina cylinder 18 which is the ground level to the oil or liquid stratum provided with means for intermittently ad-,

fected, thecasing being provided in the usual air. above-and below the piston 17 to recipmanner with 8 perfqrat d SQCtiOII f f rocate said piston and the valve stem and 2 1 from P E 011 sand h m q of valve connected thereto. For this purpose a the 68mg. Wlthm the casing 15 Prowded slide valve 20 may be provided within a valve chest 21 and controlling communication betending from the ound leveLto a suitable tween the respective end portions of the cylf point below or in t e vicinity of the level at inder 18 and inlet and exhaust H0. 7 pagsagesflg shahhfsszsszaih 811%23minim"ofa-reclpmtmgsteam 40 tical pumping cylinder or chamber 3 located g i s i opesated 3 near the lower end of the pipe 2 in position to i ve stem p e eretoe be submerged in the oil or H Hid within the erre 28 and 29 9 casing, said cylinder or'cham r 3 being of n the mam Valve rod 15 aforesafd h sufiicient height and. diameter to rovide the as to nti 'opemtlon o h 45 necessary pum in it amber 3 valvemthe manner hereinafter set forth and communicates rou h a passage7 and an up? to t e y cause Qtel'mlttent Vertlcal lp wardly opening chec valve 4 with the liquid rocatlon of the mam valveB so as to put the delivery pipe 2. cylinder 3 commumcation with the com- An air or as pressure line 5 extends from pressed air line 5 or wlththe exhaust open- 50 the ground evel to the pumping chamber As the pressure required to operate the main valve 8 will generally be considerably less than the pressure required for lifting the column ofoil in the stand pipe 2, I prefer to provide a reducing valve 33 of any suitable type, which is inserted in a pipe line 34 comm'unica-tin with the compressed a1r. line 5 and with t is valve chest 21 so as to supply to thesaid valve chest air at a pressure which may be only a small fraction of the pressure in the compressed air pipe 5.

I prefer to provide means whereby compressed air is admitted directly to the oil l ne or pipe 2 during the intervals of time when the compressed'air is shut ofi from the cylinder 8. For this purpose a valve'may be provided comprising a movable valve member 36.

sliding in a valve chamber 37 communicating through pipe '38 with the compressed a1r p pe 5 and through a pipe connection39 opening into valve. chamber 37, with the oil pipe or line 2, the opening of pipe 39 into chamber 37 bein so positioned as to be closed by valve mem er 36 only when the latter is in raised position, the valve member 36 being connected-by stem 40 to the valve 20 aforesald, so as to operate in synchronism therewith as hereinafter described;

A distributin' nozzle 35 is preferably pro vided at the out et of pipe 39 to cause the a1r or as to be distributed in the form'of fine bub les throughout the column of liquid in pipe 2, and a bafiie plate-41 may be mounted in pipe 2, to ensure that all of the liquid passing in said pipe is brought, into effective conposite ends thereof and communicating with one another through a valve 47 which operates to constrict or control communication of fluid between opposite ends of the cylinder 42, so as to resi t the movement of piston 43 therein. In or er to'-produce the most effective control I'p fer to fill the cylinder 42 and the passages co municating therewith with a i liquid, suchas oil. The resistance to flow of the li uid afiordedby reason of the con'striction 0 valves 47 serves to retard the motion of the piston 43 to any desired extent and therebycontrol the period of operation of the main valve 8.

' It is desirable in some cases to provide automatic control of'the operation of the pumping means in correspondence with the amount of oil supply in the well and for this purpose I may provide the valve 47 with an arm 47 connected to a piston 48 working in a cylinder 49 opposite en to force the piston down against the operation of a sprin 48' and to thereby tend to open the valve 4 in correspondence to the height at which the oil'stands in the casing 1 and to effect more rapidqo eration of the valve8 when the oil level is i h and the slower operation of the .valve 8 w on the oil level is low. The effect of this method of control is'to cause the pumping operation to proceed more rapx idly when there is more oil to be pumped arid less rapidly when the oil supply falls ofi.

In pumping oil or other hquid from deep wells it is necessary toapply air or gas at I high pressure to the pumping cylinder 3 and to continue such application during the exgulsion of the oil or liquid from said cylinder urmg each pumping operation. It'follows that when the valve 8 is moved to exhaust po-' s1t1o n the a1r will escape from said cylinder at high pressure and in order to utilize such high pressure air as fully as possible, I prefer to provide an exhaust pipe 50 leading from exhaust outlet 12 upwardly within the main 1 to a suitable point in the oil standpipe for example about half way up the well as shown in Fig. 6, so that the exhaust air from the pumping cylinder will be delivred into I the column of oil into the standpipe 2 and assist in raising the oil by air lift action. I

I prefer to provide the liquid delivery pipe 2 with universal joints 52 to to pass bends in the well.

Theoperation is as follows: In the position of the parts shown in Fig. 5, the main valve mem er 8 is in lowered position, shutting of]? communication between the compressed gas line 5 and umpin chamber 3, and opening communication tween the pumping chamber and exhaustpipe 50, so that the gas in said chamber will esca through t e exhaust pi 'and' will be dlstributed into-the liquid g livery pipe 2. Oil or li uid will'then enter the pumping chamber t rough the opening controlled by check valve- 13, whichogens inwardly with respect to the pumping c amber- These operatlons member approaches suchposition, the slide valve 20 is moved by operation of arm 30, 'so as to reverse the connections fromthe pressure pigs-5 and exhaust passage 23 to s of cylinder 18, so as to cause permit the pipe the main valve member 8 to begin to gnove upwardly.- In the upward movement of valve member 8, exhaust port 12 is. first closed and eventually ort 11, communicating with the compresse gas pipe 5, is opened, whereupon gas under ressure will enter chamber 3 from pipe 5 orcing the li uid in chamber 3 through check valve 4 which opens outwardly with respect to the pumping chamber) into the liquid delivery pipe 2. On rearhing the upper limit of its stroke the arm 30 on the stem of'main valve member 8 operates slide-valve 20 to again reverse the movement of said main valve member so as to restore the parts to the starting position above referred to.

By operation of valvemeans 47, restricting the flow of liquid between opposite ends of cylinder 42, the movement of the main valve member is retarded sufficiently to permit the operations above mentioned to be per formed effectively.

During the time that compressed gas is shut off from the pumping chamber, valve 36 is opened by operation of stem 40 to admit and communicating with t e liquid delivery pipe and provided with a gas inlet port comsponsive to the pressure of the liquid in the well adjacent the pumping chamber for regulating the amount of retardation by said fluid pressure operated means.

3. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 and comprising in addition, a valve operated in synchronisni with the operating means of said main valve member to open communication between the compressed gas supply pipe and the liquid delivery pipe alternately with the intervals of communication between the compressed air pipe and the pumping chamber. so as to distribute gas into the column of liquid in said delivery pipe. 7

'4. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 and comprising in addition, fluid pressure operated means responsive to the pressure of the liquid in the well adjacent the pumping chamber andcontrolling the operation of the main valve member so as to effect more rapid operation of said valve member when the level of the liquid in the well is high, and slower operation of said valve member when the level of the liquid in the well is low.

' In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto subscribed my name this 22nd day of October,

' PAUL H. GRANGER.

municating with the compressed gas supply and with an exhaust port, a check valve opening outwardly with respect tothe pumping chamber and controlling communication between the pumping chamber and the liquid delivery pipe, a check valve opening inwardly with respect to the pumping chamber and controlling entry of liquid from the well to the chamber, said pumping chamber being formed as a vertical chamber, a main valve member movable vertically in said cylinder and cooperatin with the said ports of the pumping cham er, fluid pressure operated means located within the well for operating said valve member to alternatelyopen and close said ports, control valve means located within the well and operated by the movement of said main valve member to control the operation of said fluid pressure operatedmeans, means for supplying operating flu1d under the control of said control valve means to the said fluid pressure operated means, and

means for supplying compressed gas to the i compressed gas supply pipe to force liquid from the pumping chamber intothe liquid delivery pipe when the communicationbetween the compressed gas supplypipe and the pumping chamber is opened by operation of said main valve.

2. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1 and comprising, in addition, fluid pressure 0 erated means 0? said main valve member and means refor retarding the movement 

